Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken

Coat of arms of the Netherlands

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Department overview
Formed March 12, 1798 (1798-03-12)
Jurisdiction Kingdom of the Netherlands
Headquarters Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, The Hague, Netherlands
Annual budget €11,5 billion (2013)[1]
Ministers responsible
Website Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Dutch: Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken; BuZa) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for foreign relations, diplomacy, European cooperation and international development. Though the Dutch Republic had extensive international relations and diplomatic activity, the present Ministry was created in 1798 as the Department of Foreign Affairs of the then Batavian Republic and in 1876 became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry is headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, currently Bert Koenders.

Azure, billetty Or a lion with a coronet Or armed and langued Gules holding in his dexter paw a sword Argent hilted Or and in the sinister paw seven arrows Argent pointed and bound together Or. [The seven arrows stand for the seven provinces of the Union of Utrecht.] The shield is crowned with the (Dutch) royal crown and supported by two lions Or armed and langued gules. They stand on a scroll Azure with the text (Or) "Je Maintiendrai" (French for "I will maintain".)
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Responsibilities

The Ministry is responsible for the foreign policy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has eight goals:

Organisation

The ministry consists of the political leadership the two ministers and the state secretary, civil service in the Hague, the diplomatic missions and various independent agencies.

Ministry

The civil service consists of the top level, the secretary general and his deputy and five directorates general, which manage several departements. The directorates general are led by Directors-General and are occupied with specific issues of foreign policy.

Missions

The Netherlands has more than 150 missions. These missions promote the interest of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They include:

Independent agencies

The ministry has several different independent agencies:

History

The Ministry was formed in 1798 as the Department of Foreign Affairs . Since 1965 a minister for international development has been appointed each formation (excluding in the First Balkenende cabinet and the First Rutte cabinet) and since 1956 there was a State Secretary for European Affairs.

List of Ministers of Foreign Affairs

For a list of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, see List of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Since the 1990s there have been three political leaders of the ministry of foreign affairs: the minister (called M), the minister without portfolio for international development (called R) and the state secretary for European affairs (called T). The state secretary of European Affairs has the right to call himself Minister of European Affairs outside of the Netherlands.

See also

References

  1. (Dutch) V Buitenlandse Zaken, Rijksoverheid, September 18, 2012

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, October 18, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.